Need a case, heatsinks and fan. Also "is this a bad case?"

[Imperf3kt]

Amazon is a marketplace similar to ebay. People put goods up for sale, and say where they'll ship to.
Amazon, is also one of those sellers, so choose a different seller that does ship to you. Amazon says the item can be shipped, so one of the sellers must ship to Brazil, and the most likely to do that, is Amazon itself.

The item might cost more from seller x instead of seller y, but it's pretty pointless going for the cheapest price if seller y doesn't ship the item to you.

[runboy93]

You can be sure, that you have no problems with heat anymore with this case

Note: "52pi" is original designer of this armor case, rest are either selling stock from 52pi (package has guide with 52pi logo on it) or selling copy version, with possible of wrong aligned of screws, thermal tapes wrong thickness or other quality problems.

[mooblie]

I wonder how much noise that makes?

[runboy93]

I wonder how much noise that makes?

I've heard some who got defect cases (who knows, maybe even copy cases?) noises were somewhat high, but normally they should not do much noise at all, if you are used on computer fans, then these are almost silent.

[mooblie]

Available from AliExpress?:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/52Pi-Ra ... 91921.html

Looking at this picture: where are the fans!?:



I'm guessing they don't actually blow on the Pi itself, but only on the heatsink, and then exhaust out to the sides?

And since this is not actually a case, can you use four longer screws and insulating spacers/pillars to mount the Pi+52Pi heatsink/fans inside a larger case?

[LTolledo]

I have one, but wont be using the GPIO header's 5V and GND pins to power the fans ( I never power my fan cooled RPi's from the GPIO header's 5v and ground pins)

Opened it already but the RPi3B I was planning to installed it to ran into a bit of a problem. The 26x26x6 heatsink was glued firmly to the SOC, that's when I remembered I used thermal adhesive to mount the heatsink.

Might test the fans first if those are "noisy". If it is noisy then I need to "silence" it first. Then install into my incoming RPi3B...
.. and install my spare DAC on top of it, giving a lower profile than the one now I have on setup

[runboy93]

You could also take off fans out of the case, it would still be good as it's open case.

It just leaves quite hollow place on the upper plate (looks ugly), anyway then it would be fanless.

[macsboost]

have a look at this McPi motorsport case, CNC machined and anodized with a real carbon fiber top and a stainless LED ring power switch. It is fanless and is designed to be the highest quality case you can buy.

https://www.macsboost.com/product/mcpi- ... y-pi-case/

[runboy93]

have a look at this McPi motorsport case, CNC machined and anodized with a real carbon fiber top and a stainless LED ring power switch. It is fanless and is designed to be the highest quality case you can buy.

https://www.macsboost.com/product/mcpi- ... y-pi-case/

Quite expensive case thermal pads etc not included, fully closed design (WiFi suffer), I don't see simply any good in that case.

[runboy93]

It looks like this. Already enough ventilation + 8 small extra holes (which were for screws)





Fans

[macsboost]

have a look at this McPi motorsport case, CNC machined and anodized with a real carbon fiber top and a stainless LED ring power switch. It is fanless and is designed to be the highest quality case you can buy.

https://www.macsboost.com/product/mcpi- ... y-pi-case/

Quite expensive case thermal pads etc not included, fully closed design (WiFi suffer), I don't see simply any good in that case.

Thermal pads are more of a marketing gimmick. The best conductivity is provided by a precision flat surface on both the processor and case. A thermal pad while thermally conductive is very poor compared to aluminum. Bare aluminum is about 20-40X better at conducting heat.

This case isn't for everyone but if you want one for your desktop that looks as good as it performs this is something to consider.

[Imperf3kt]

Thermal pads are better than air though. So unless you can get two perfectly flat surfaces on an atomic level, a pad is better than no pad.

Better than a thermal pad is thermal paste

[runboy93]

Available from AliExpress?:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/52Pi-Ra ... 91921.html

Looking at this picture: where are the fans!?:



I'm guessing they don't actually blow on the Pi itself, but only on the heatsink, and then exhaust out to the sides?

And since this is not actually a case, can you use four longer screws and insulating spacers/pillars to mount the Pi+52Pi heatsink/fans inside a larger case?

Anyway, IMO those fans are not much needed on that case, reason why I took them off. As you can see, compared to rest aluminum cases which are solid, this one is open case, so no problem with ventilation, and also compared to solid aluminum case, open case has noticeable reliable WiFi connection

And you can replace stock 3M thermal tapes (0.6 W/m.K), which comes with the case, with thermal paste of course (for obvious thermal boost), or with improved thermal tapes 0.3mm thickness, such as Akasa thermal tape (0.9 W/m.K), but don't use thermal pads (which usually starts from 0.5mm, it makes impossible to get case closed with screws, as they won't be able to go all way)

Thermal paste cheapest vs thermal effect.

[Yanazake]

I know about that case, it has some variations (no fan, one fan, two fans) and it really looks like a good cooling option all things considered. Still might be better for projects instead of an actual case tho.


I'm almost tempted to run through Ltolledo's posts and see if they posted any tutorial about using and altering fans...


EDIT: almost forgot! my new metal case arrived, but i'm trying to run any time of stress/temperature benchmark before assembling the pi on it just to make sure how well the temperature is being taken care of.

[runboy93]

I know about that case, it has some variations (no fan, one fan, two fans)

No fan case variation is very likely "geekworm" brand, which is copy case from 52pi case (original designer of the armor case), according to their support.